Laser time-resolved spectroscopy: Investigations of energy transfer in Eu3+ and Er3+ doped YVO4

Host-sensitized energy transfer in YVO₄ crystals doped with Eu³⁺ and Er³⁺ ions was investigated using laser excited time-resolved spectroscopy techniques. The results are consistent with a model in which the energy is transferred by a single step process from self- trapped excitons to activators at low temperatures, and by thermally activated exciton hopping at high temperatures. The rate of the latter process is found to be strongly affected by the trapping step with activator-induced host traps playing an important part in the trapping process. Time-resolved spectroscopy techniques are shown to be expecially useful in separately determining the characteristics of migration and trapping processes in exciton energy transfer. The parameters describing these processes are determined for the systems investigated using both diffusion and generalized random walk theories.